NEWARK, Del.– Down by one at halftime, the No. 8 Blue Hens scored three unanswered goals to down Northeastern, 3-1, Friday afternoon at Fred P. Rullo Stadium in the first game of the CAA semifinals.

With the win, top-seeded Delaware (14-4) advances to the CAA championship match for the fifth straight season and eighth time overall. The Blue Hens will take on the third-seeded William & Mary at 1 p.m. Sunday. The No. 19 Tribe defeated No. 15 James Madison, 2-1, in the second semifinal contest of the day.

Northeastern (8-12)held the Hens without a goal for the first 37 minutes of the contest before senior Taylor Lister (Hummelstown, Pa./Lower Dauphin) posted the equalizer with a tip-in from junior Greta Nauck(below right; Krefeld, Germany/Gymnasium am Moltekplatz).

Just 36 seconds later, Nauck, the CAA Player of the Year for the second consecutive year, registered the game-winner off an assist from Lister.

Junior Michaela Scanlon (Wynnewood, Pa./Merion Mercy) added the insurance goal with just 45 seconds remaining in the contest. Classmate Lisa Giezeman (Leidschendam, The Netherlands/Sin-Maartens College) recorded the assist on the play.

Senior Emmeline Oltmans (Baarn, The Netherlands/Het Baarnsch Lyceum) collected three saves in 70 minutes of play for Delaware.

Camille O’Conor logged the Huskies’ lone goal of the afternoon while Julia Gluyas picked up four saves for Northeastern.

“Compliments to Northeastern on how they regrouped and presented themselves today. We were able to create a lot of opportunities and we had a lot of moments, but you have to be able to put those in. In the second half we were able to go over our game plan and regroup. That’s part of postseason play; in the first game you have to get the jitters out.

“It’s always important to believe in yourself and in your team. The game is 70 minutes, not 35 minutes, and we knew that and didn’t give up. We were able to pick up the energy, focus on ourselves and in the end it worked out.”

“We’re on our own field and we obviously want to keep going in the tournament, so we were ready to fight and take the game that we wanted to be ours. After the first goal, the chips kept falling and we were really locked in. The last goal was important to really solidify the win. Leading by 2-1 is not a comfortable score, so we wanted to lock in that third goal to have some wiggle room.”